Cite Your Sources: APA In-Text Citations

This short Library video will show you how to cite your sources in-text using APA. 

An in-text citation is a note in parentheses. For example, “This hypothesis was tested parenthesis Smith comma 2021 parenthesis period.” 

It tells the reader that the information or idea is from another source and where they can find that source. 

APA style generally uses the author-year method of in-text citation instead of footnotes. 

This means that when you are citing a source, you put the last name of the author first, followed by a comma and the year of publication. For example, parenthesis Smith comma 2021 parenthesis. 

When do you need to include the page number? 

Direct quotations require a page number. For example, “The napping habits of cats provide interesting data” parenthesis Jones comma 2019 comma page 2 parenthesis period. The word page is abbreviated to p followed by a period and then the number. 

You must also provide the page number when you are using a specific part of a source. For example, if a statistic is used, the citation should also include the page number. A citation with a page number would be formatted like this: “Researchers found 72% of the cats preferred napping in the sun parenthesis Smith comma 2021 comma p period 2 parenthesis period. 

Where does the in-text citation go? There are 2 options. 

Number 1: Place it at the end of the sentence. For example: Research has shown that cats like to nap parenthesis Smith comma 2021 parenthesis period. 

Number 2: Incorporate the author's name into the sentence. For example: Smith parenthesis 2021 parenthesis conducted research showing that cats like to nap. 

When you cite a source in text don't forget that a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of your assignment. 

[Image showing two articles as examples of completed references on a Reference page. The page contains the title “References” centered at the top of the page. The two articles and are arranged in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names. Each reference entry is formatted as follows: the author’s last name, initial of first name, period, year of publication in parentheses, period, the title of the source, journal title, volume number, issue number in parentheses, comma, the page range, and period. The second line of each entry also includes a hanging indent. The examples are the following:  

Bates, D. (2022). The Difficulties of Tracking Catnaps. Cat Review, 34(3), 671-707. 

Smith, L. (2021). Studies in Cat Behaviour. Cats and Dogs, 4(1), 98-107.] 

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This concludes the library video on how to effectively use APA in-text citations. 

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